The work of Denver’s I.W.W. Domestic Workers’ Industrial Union Local 113 and its leading force, Jane Street.

‘The Domestic Workers’ Union’ by C.W. Sellers from Solidarity. Vol. 7 No. 331. May 13, 1915.

Colorado, the hotbed of industrial revolt, sounds once more to the workers of the world the clarion cry of battle. The 5,000 domestic slaves of Denver, who toil from dawn to long past dark, under conditions of labor unspeakably hard, in the homes of the powdered parasites of Capitol Hill, have at last turned on their oppressors. Slave is defying mistress, revolting against age-long tyrannies, throwing down the gauge of battle and the fight is on.

The new Domestic Workers Industrial Union, Local 113, of the Industrial Workers of the World, which was called into existence by the revolt of the workers, has opened headquarters in the Charles building, near the center of the downtown business district, established a free employment bureau and recruiting station for members. Many workers are being sent out every day to the homes of the masters, and new members are being added to the rolls. Union meetings are held every Sunday evening where the gospel of industrial unionism is expounded, and tactics for fighting the mistress on the job are suggested and discussed. Organization, education and sabotage are the watchwords. Women representatives of the press attend the meetings in the guise of house maids and get front page stories of the battles between maids mistresses that have stirred the old town from center to circumference.

The Young Women’s Christian Association is leaguing the painted dolls of Denver’s exclusive homes against the new union and attempting to befool the workers by denouncing the I.W.W. and urging the slaves to join the association. The Housewives Assembly; an organization of mistresses that sprang into existence after the birth of the new union, is co-operating with the YW CA in a general opposition to the domestic workers. The Assembly is made up largely of female politicians and members of the Colorado Law and Order League, an organization formed during the Colorado coal strike of two years ago to oppose the coal miners in their fight against Rockefellerism and wage slavery. They are the same gang of society parasites that applauded the Colorado National Guard and lionized its officers after they had massacred women and children of Ludlow.

Jane Street, the little rebel housemaid who is leading the domestic workers into the ranks of the I.W.W. has charge of the union headquarters. She is compiling a list of the homes in Denver, where domestic workers are employed, together with tabulated data as to the hours, wages, treatment of help, etc. With the aid of this information, the workers being placed on jobs can be furnished with valuable advance information, and the best tactics arranged to fit each individual mistress. Between 1,500 and 2,000 places have been listed, and it is expected to soon have all the data on all the employers in Denver.

Many workers are being constantly discharged on trumped up charges of theft and their wages denied them. The crying need at the present time to make the new organization a complete success, is a large rooming house or club house for the unemployed and those awaiting assignment to places where the tactics of the union is being used against mistresses to force better conditions. The secretary is negotiating for such a place, but cannot get enough funds together to finance the deal. The writer would earnestly urge all I.W.W, Locals and members who are in a position to do so, to send contributions to aid in this movement. With a little assistance now when the organization is young and meeting with much powerful opposition, the union can soon be built up to large proportions, and be in a position to render much material assistance to the men and women on the firing line in other industries.

The new field being opened up by little Jane Street and her rebel co-workers presents tremendous possibilities. The men and women who perform the personal service in the homes of the masters occupy a strategic position in the army of the workers. An intelligent rebel in the boss’ mansion makes an excellent spy in the interest of the workers. The disgusting, intimately personal service, close drawing of class lines, and curtailment of personal liberties always found in connection with domestic service, make for revolution. The vast army of men and women who perform domestic labor, once organized and educated to a realization of their own power and importance, would possess a potential strength to force sufficient conditions in their own industry and would prove a powerful factor in aiding the movement all along the line in the profit industries.

I.W.W.’s everywhere, do what you can to aid these rebel women. They are slowly but surely aligning their forces to land smashing blows at the seats of the mighty. Agitate, boost, contribute!

The most widely read of I.W.W. newspapers, Solidarity was published by the Industrial Workers of the World from 1909 until 1917. First produced in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and born during the McKees Rocks strike, Solidarity later moved to Cleveland, Ohio until 1917 then spent its last months in Chicago. With a circulation of around 12,000 and a readership many times that, Solidarity was instrumental in defining the Wobbly world-view at the height of their influence in the working class. It was edited over its life by A.M. Stirton, H.A. Goff, Ben H. Williams, Ralph Chaplin who also provided much of the paper’s color, and others. Like nearly all the left press it fell victim to federal repression in 1917.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1916/v7-w331-may-13-1916-solidarity.pdf